And she's home... Matilda Doll, the little rag doll that helped ease the grief of her owner whose baby daughter died aged three months, has finally made it back.

Claire and Kris Gray drove from their home in Newtownards, Co Down , to Dundalk this evening for the all important pick-up.

Kris and Claire Gray and Matilda Doll finally reunited

They met Paul McDonnell, 35, the Park Superintendent at Phoenix Park whose colleagues worked their way through a skip of rubbish to locate the doll.

And the exchange of Claire's precious Matilda Doll took place amid laughter and tears.

The doll had been a huge comfort to Claire whose three-month-old daughter Matilda died in 2013.

A team of five men who work with Paul at the Office of Public Works, Dublin, started the search at 1.30pm after the clean up after the Bank Holiday weekend while Rachel Coyle handled calls from the public in Ireland and across Europe in the office.

Paul said: "Des came to me and said the team felt they had to give it a go.

"They had seen the story of Matilda Doll and the OPW had been inundated with calls, emails from as far away as Italy and members of the public who came to the park to search for the doll themselves.

Claire Gray reunited with Matilda Doll and the man who delivered her after his colleagues scooped her from a skip

"It was a messy job but none of the lads was complaining and 20 minutes in they struck gold."

Dressed in protective clothing Team Matilda Doll started work on the main skip which holds all the rubbish from Pheonix Park, a dirty and smelly job in the heat of the day.

And shortly before 2pm a plastic bag was ripped open to reveal just what they were looking for - Matilda Doll had been placed in a bin by someone and dumped in the skip by unwitting cleansing staff.

Paul said: "My colleagues Des Donnelly, Brian McGlynn, Terrence Carroll, Terry Carroll and Chris Byrne, cheered when the doll was uncovered and they hope to welcome Claire, Kris and their baby son Archie to the park in the near future.

"It was a dirty job and they expected to have to scramble to the very bottom of the skip but they found her within 20 minutes - they did a brilliant job.

"Everyone is delighted. Claire and Kris have been through a terrible time, an unimaginable time and all the staff at the OPW wanted to do was help where we could.

"Matilda Doll is perfectly fine with a couple of splodges of dirt but all of it fixable.

"She's been on an incredible story and so have we. Thank you to everyone who helped starting with Belfast Live and Dublin Live and across the airwaves and social media, and finally to the staff at the OPW who went to the lengths they did to look for her.